1.Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pointing apparatus and method, and more particularly, to a pointing apparatus, which has a ring shape and is used as an input apparatus, like a touch pad, of a portable computer, and a pointing method using the same.
2.Description of the Related Art
A current operating system, which adopts a graphical user interface (GUI) and a mouse to use a desktop computer, accepts 2D GUI as a common user interface and requires a pointing apparatus for moving and activating a pointer to input a user's selections. A mouse, which is a typical input apparatus, has many advantages of stably moving on a flat plane, easily associating its 2-dimensional motion with 2-dimensional motion of a pointer, orthogonality between the directions of motion and clicking, and reflecting minute motions of a hand.
However, with the development of a computing environment toward laying great emphasis on mobility in spite of unchanging GUI, a handy pointing apparatus that supersedes a mouse has been steadily sought. In other words, the mouse needs a predetermined size due to its “grasp and move” feature, which limits mobility of the mouse. Therefore, an alternative pointing apparatus has been required.
To replace a mouse in portable computing circumstances, a touch pad by APPLE COMPUTER Co., and a track point by IBM Co., were developed. However, in the case of the touch pad, since a sensing membrane having a predetermined size or more is positioned on a palm-rest area, misinput caused by contact with a palm can occur during typewriting. Also, the touch pad is not applied to small-sized devices such as a PDA because it has some restrictions, such as space. On the other hand, the track point is installed in the center of a keyboard instead of a palm-rest area so that misinput during typewriting is prevented and an area occupied by the track point is minimized. Whenever a pointer starts drifting due to a sensor's drift, however, a reset operation should be performed. Also, the track point has less responsivity and precision than the touch pad. Further, since the “motion” operation is not in harmony with the “selection” operation due to the positions of a button and a pointing stick, it is difficult to perform some operations such as dragging.
Therefore, a pointing apparatus improving the foregoing problems is needed.